Winter Games Include New Fiction From JCPL!

It’s February 6; let the games begin! In Sochi, we’re gearing up for competition in some slippery sports, such as figure skating, ice hockey, speed skating and ski jumping. These winter sports are designed for those who are highly skilled and trained to compete with one another and Mother Nature. I’m thinking that Mother Nature has missed the memo that the winter games should be strictly limited, however, to Sochi, and folks who are accomplished in and enjoy the thrill of the slippery slide of snow and ice.

Here in Indiana, our daily routines have reached almost Olympic proportions, as we slip and slide just trying to get from point A to point B and our cars, trucks and SUVs perform figure 8’s while speed skating to work, school or wherever the day may take us, all the while wondering if our vehicles would be better off fitted with skate blades than tires. If spring is right around the corner, we can only hope that corner is not too broad or too many steps away, but in the meanwhile, take heart and stop in your local branch of the Jasper County Public Library and check out these great, new fiction titles!

William Bellman lives a charmed life. He is married to a beautiful woman and has a brood of healthy, strong children. His current life, a far cry from his troubled life as a child, couldn’t be rosier. When people around him begin to die, there is a strange man in black at each funeral. When tragedy strikes and William loses all but one member of his beloved family, the man in black shows up yet again; this time, however he comes to William with a proposition in the form of a mysterious business called ‘Bellman and Black’ in “Bellman & Black: A Ghost Story” by Diane Setterfield.

What can we expect from America in the future if we continue on our current course? Author, Chang-rae Lee has written an imaginative tale set in a future and long-declining America, an America that no longer houses the suburban world that we know now; an America that has replaced neighborhoods with labor colonies and repurposed the members of society in classes. In this new America, Fan, a female fish-tank diver, journeys away from her settlement, once known as Baltimore, in search of the man she loves, taking her to the anarchy of the Open Counties, where crime is rampant in “On Such a Full Sea” by Chang-rae Lee.

On the first day of the Wimbledon tennis tournament, a dead body is found on court nineteen. Angela Costello has just been promoted to Detective and recognizes the victim, Petar Belic. Belic was once a double grand-slam sinner and one of the best known players of the modern era, but Petar had a complicated personal life and was not exactly well-loved by his fellow players. As Costello investigates the untimely demise of the popular Petar, her suspicions deepen. With no real proof to back her up, she must rely on vital details that prove to be elusive in “Game, Set, Murder,” a D.I. Costello mystery by Elizabeth Flynn.

Detective Inspector Horton is into a death investigation full-swing. Is it murder or was it a suicide? Just as he begins to uncover the truth, his investigation is thwarted by his higher-ups, making him wonder if there is reason to suspect a cover-up at the highest level. When another body is found under similar circumstances, Horton is convinced it’s definitely murder, but finding out who is behind it and why is prickly when there is no cooperation from the ranks above. Just as he gets close to uncovering the truth, it becomes more personal for Horton in “Undercurrent” by Pauline Rowson.

This winter, you’ll probably slip and slide some more as you go from point A to point B, but as you skate through the rest of the winter, make a pit-stop at your local branch of JCPL and check out the great, new fiction on the shelves. Game on!